The Fatal Force

THE FATAL FORCE.1

1899.

“She

In the habilments of the goddess Isis

That day appeared.” — Anthony and Cleopatra, iii, 6, 16

“Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the earth, reached by a descending ladder which hath Seven Steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and fatal force.” — ZOROASTER. {col. start below}

[She assumes the appearance of her mature beauty, standing before them with the wand upraised.

Wonder and worship! Sing to me the song

Of the extreme spring! Rejoice in my great strength

And infinite youth and new fertility,

And lave your foreheads in this holy milk

That springs, the fountain of humanity,

Luminous in the temple! Raise the hymn.

CHORUS.

Through fields of foam ungarnered sweeps

The fury of the wind of dawn;

Through fiery desolation creeps

The water of the wind withdrawn.

With fire and water consecrate

The foam and fire are recreate.

With air uniting fire and water,

The springtide’s unbegotten daughter

Blossoms in oceans of blue air,

Flowers of new spring to bear.

The sorrowful twin fishes glide

Silent and sacred into sleep;

The joyful Ram exalts his pride,

Seeing the forehead of the deep

Glow from his palace, as the sun

Leaps to the spring, whose coursers run

Flaming before their golden master,

As death and winter and disaster

Fall from the Archer’s bitter kiss

Fast to their mute abyss. {149B}

The pale sweet blooms of lotus burn;

The scent of spring is in the soul;

Men’s spirits to the loftiest turn;

Light is extended and made whole.

The waters of the whispering Nile

Lisp of their loves a little while,

Then break, like songsters, into sighing,

Because the lazy days are dying;

And swift and tawny streams must rise

World’s world to fertilise.

The lotus is afire for love,

Its yearnings are immortal still;

But in its bosom, fed thereof,

Lust, like a child, will have his will.

Immortal fervour, strangely blent

With mystic sensual sacrament,

Fills up its cup; its petals tremble

With faint desires that dissemble

The fierce intention to be wed

One with the spring sun’s head.

The fountains of the river yearn

Toward the sacred temple-walls,

They foam upon the sands that burn

With spring’s delirious festivals.

They flash upon the gleaming ways,

They cry, they chant aloud the praise

Of Isis, and our temple kisses

Their flowery water-wildernesses,

Whose foamheads nestle to the stones

With slumberous antiphones.

All birds and beasts and fish are fain

To mingle passion with the hope

All creatures hold, that cycled pain

May make its stream the wider scope

Of many lives and changing law,

Till to the sacred fountains draw

Essences of dim being, mated

With lofty substance uncreated,

Concluding the full period

That makes all being God.

S’AFI (disguised in the mask of a lion).

I lift the censer. Hail, immortal queen,

From the vast hall of death! Dead Horus cries {150A}

Towards the dawn. Bid me awake, O mother!

O mother! from the darkness of the tomb,

That live Osiris may cry back to thee,

O spouse! O sister! from the halls of life,

The profound lake, the immeasurable depth,

The sea of the three Loves! O mother, mother!

Isis, the voice that even Amenti hears,

Speak, that I rise from chaos, from the world

Of shapeless and illusionary forms,

Of dead men's husks, and unsubstantial things.

O mother, mother, mother! I arise!

RATOUM.

Horus, dread godhead, child of me, arise!

Arise Osiris, to the sacred rites

And marriage-bed of fuller deity.

Now, at the serpent-motion of this wand,

Rise from the dead! Arise, dead Horus, rise

To be Osiris. Isis speaks! Arise!

[The coffin is opened. THE LEPER is raised out of it swathed in bandages.

Our of the sleep of ages wake and live!

[The wrappings fall off.

THE LEPER.

I am the resurrection and the death!

[RATOUM falls back shrieking. The priests raise a chant to stifle the sound.

S’AFI (tearing off his mask).

I am the hideous poison of thy veins

And foulest fruit of thy incestuous womb.

RATOUM.

I am thy mother! I have nurtured thee

With woman’s tenderness and godhead’s strength.

S’AFI.

I am the avenger of my own false birth. {150B}

RATOUM.

I have loved thee ever; I have made thee god.

S’AFI.

I hate myself, and therefore I hate thee.

RATOUM.

I am still goddess, still desire thy love.

That leper lies: thou art indeed a god.

S’AFI.

I am a god to execute my will.

[Threatens her with his dagger.

RATOUM.

Mercy! Thou canst not strike a woman down!

S’AFI.

So! The thin casing of the godhead rots,

Mere mummy-cloth: the rotten corpse within,

Dust and corruption! I am still the god,

And gods slay women: therefore I slay thee.

RATOUM.

Then thou shalt seem me once again a god!

[By a tremendous effort she towers before him. Silently they gaze at one another for a while, he vainly endeavouring to force himself to strike. At last she collapses into the throne; he springs forward and drives his knife into her.

[Silence. Then grows a noise of men fighting, & c.; above this after a while rises a shrill laughter, terrifying to hear. Then cries of victory and the triumphant laugh of a great conqueror. His heavy step, and that of his staff, & c., is next heard coming masterfully down the corridor. The soldier gives a shriek.

THE LEPER.

The Syrian must not see a cur like this

Cower at death. For Egypt’s honour, then! {153A}

Give me that spear. [Aside.] That royalty's own hand

Should send this thing to his long misery!

[Taking a spear, he runs through the soldier.

The KING OF SYRIA, attended, enters.

KING OF SYRIA.

Your armies beaten back before my face,

Your weapons broken, I am come to take

The crown from her pale brows that sitteth there.

THE LEPER.

The Queen is dead: I am the King of Egypt.

To-day I saved the house from its own shame

By strange ways: I will strike one blow to save

The land from its invaders. In the name

Of all our gods, I here invoke on thee

The spirit of my leprosy. Have at you!

[Springs at the KING OF SYRIA, only to be transfixed on his drawn sword; but he succeeds in clasping the king, who staggers. His soldiers, with a shout, rush forward, drag down THE LEPER and attack the priests. All are slain. Silence: then a shield drops, clanging on the ground.

KING OF SYRIA (assuming crown and sitting on throne).

Salute the conqueror of the Egyptian land!

[The soldiers salute and cheer.

I am a leper: get ye hence!

[Exeunt soldiers.

Unclean!

[Silence.

This was the hour that my ambitious hopes

Centered upon; and now I grasp the hour —

So fares mortality.

[Silence.

Unclean! unclean! {153B}

{full page below}

CURTAIN. {153}

1. This play deals with the effect of shattering all the solid bases of a young man's mind. Here we find him strong enough to win through. In the “Mother’s Tragedy” is a similar case with a weaker nature. It is well to note that in the former play the mother is evil; in the latter good. Hence also in part the tragedy. For a good mother is an affliction against which none by the strongest may strive. It is fortunately rare.

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